I'm new to the Blackberry community and completely love my BB Curve. I've owned my device for about three weeks now and don't know why I didn't get one sooner.

Besides my full-time job as an in-house translator and interpreter I also work as a freelance translator and interpreter and the BB has made it so much easier for me to keep track of my projects and stay in contact with my clients.

I will be traveling to Thailand on a business trip next week and will have a layover in Tokyo on my way there and back. My wife is seven months pregnant and not particularly thrilled about me having to be so far away. I will only be gone for about nine days but she's still a little worried.

Since I have a BB now I wasn't planing on taking my laptop and was hoping I could use the Curve to stay in touch with her. I called T-Mobile yesterday to add the BlackBerry Unlimited International E-Mail Service to my phone for the duration of my trip. The CSR told me that I would be able to use BB Service on two out of three carriers in Thailand but not at all in Japan, which is fine because I'm only going to be in Japan for about six hours and don't necessarily need to send any e-mails while I'm there, however, I would have liked to call home to let my wife know that everything is fine.

Now, it is my understanding that the Curve does not support the 3G network which is primarily used in Japan but would it be possible to connect to a WiFi network at the airport and call her this way? Somewhere I read that calls via an international "Hotspot" are billed at 0.12 Cent/Minute.

During my stay in Thailand I would keep her updated via e-mail most of the time but I was wondering if I could connect to the public WiFi network at the hotel and use the network to call her as well.

I'm new to the Blackberry community and completely love my BB Curve. I've owned my device for about three weeks now and don't know why I didn't get one sooner.

Besides my full-time job as an in-house translator and interpreter I also work as a freelance translator and interpreter and the BB has made it so much easier for me to keep track of my projects and stay in contact with my clients.

I will be traveling to Thailand on a business trip next week and will have a layover in Tokyo on my way there and back. My wife is seven months pregnant and not particularly thrilled about me having to be so far away. I will only be gone for about nine days but she's still a little worried.

Since I have a BB now I wasn't planing on taking my laptop and was hoping I could use the Curve to stay in touch with her. I called T-Mobile yesterday to add the BlackBerry Unlimited International E-Mail Service to my phone for the duration of my trip. The CSR told me that I would be able to use BB Service on two out of three carriers in Thailand but not at all in Japan, which is fine because I'm only going to be in Japan for about six hours and don't necessarily need to send any e-mails while I'm there, however, I would have liked to call home to let my wife know that everything is fine.

Now, it is my understanding that the Curve does not support the 3G network which is primarily used in Japan but would it be possible to connect to a WiFi network at the airport and call her this way? Somewhere I read that calls via an international "Hotspot" are billed at 0.12 Cent/Minute.

During my stay in Thailand I would keep her updated via e-mail most of the time but I was wondering if I could connect to the public WiFi network at the hotel and use the network to call her as well.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone here can provide!

Andy

This may be a good news for you about Japan. I think you will be able to use HotSpots WiFi sites in Japan. But of course your BlackBerry doesn't work in Japan if you are using EDGE/GPRS. Japan's network is completely different from the rest of the world.

Thanks for the info. I figured EDGE/GPRS wouldn't work. If worse comes to worse I could also wait until I'm in Thailand and call from there. However, I'll have to see if I can get connected to a TMO Hotspot and call my wife that way. There seem to be a couple of Hotspots at Narita Airport, so we'll see.

By the way, if there's a public WiFi network at the airport, could I just connect to that network?

__________________Hello, mother. I come bearing a gift. I'll give you a hint. It's in my diaper and it's not a toaster.

If you access a public wifi, such as in Narita, you'll need to click on your browser, sign up for the 24 hour service which is only 600 yen and then once you've done that.Click on " Wi-Fi Hotspot login " and insert your user name and password. Or most of the lounges have free access if you can get into one of them.

might want to double-check with t-mobile... i used it in Japan myself, and a friend of mine who tried it in poland. calling back to the US from a wifi hotspot anywhere overseas is charged as a local call; free if you have a hotspot@home plan or charged against your minutes if u dont. the international per minute fee is only if u call a number in the country you're in while utilizing a hotspot.

In Thailand you should be fine. I've never used the international email option, but network coverage is very uniform compared to the US.

If your hotel has wifi you should be fine. I've called over UMA from Thailand and call quality is good. Not long calls so I'm not sure if a long one can be sustained. Make sure you turn off the mobile radio so that you'll definitely be making the call over UMA.

Finding an open wifi hotspot is also not too hard depending on where you are. Larger midpriced hotel lobbys are a good place to try. The cheaper hotels generally don't have it, and the more expensive ones tend to charge. Many pubs have free wifi and some random restaurants do.

As a backup, get the phone unlock code from Tmobile. Then if needed get an AIS (One-2-Call) sim. You won't get BB mail, but the BB Web access set up automatically and email can be checked through the browser if your mail serice has that option. The service book is sent automatically. Calls to the US on that SIM are also only about 25 cents/min or maybe a little more.

In Narita I tried to get UMA, but the only wifi I found was pay per use. I could get the website to show, but there were so many different options to choose between that I couldn't figure it out.

I believe the hotels mentioned on the Tmobile website are past immigration so you'd have to clear through and then come back. The ANA lounge might be the best shot. I have a map of the airport at home but won't be able to check it for 2 days.

Edit: Checked the map and if you're flying into terminal 1 (United, ANA, lots of others), the ANA lounges are on the 2nd floor and 4th floors. No hotels showing on the map so they don't seem to be attached to the airport. Probably a shuttle away.